Genealogy, History and DNA

Sickness and battle casualties

Reading about the Civil War service of our Logans and kinfolk reveals an extraordinary rate of sickness and, especially, death from disease, not combat itself. This was true of all wars up until fairly recently when improved methods of hygiene, inoculations, sulfa drugs, penicillin, and improvements in health care practices reduced the death rate from non-combat causes.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), for every American death in battle, six soldiers died of disease. During the Civil War (1861-1865), there were three deaths by disease for every two in combat.